a journal of analysis and comment
advancing public understanding of religion and education
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Volume 33 Number 2
Spring 2006

How Colleges Differ in their Efforts
to Promote
Moral and Ethical Development in College

Pu-Shih Daniel Chen, Jon C. Dalton, and Pamela C.
Crosby

Moral and Ethical Learning in American Higher Education

In the first American colleges, moral and religious values
were a centerpiece of institutional mission. Most of these early colleges were
established for the training of clergy and emphasized the teaching and practice
of moral and religious values as an intrinsic aspect of their educational
mission. Stamm points out that in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was
assumed that studentsí spiritual lives and faith development were integral
aspects of learning and development in college.

1
Concern for the moral and religious life of students continued in American
colleges throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.2
Faith oriented and non-sectarian liberal arts colleges routinely offered courses
in ethics and values as an essential part of the core curriculum. Many
presidents of eighteenth century American colleges and universities taught a
capstone course in moral philosophy that was required of all seniors. One goal
of the capstone course was to integrate studentsí learning in college within a
moral context and to send them into society as morally and ethically responsible
citizens.3 While this
legacy of concern for the moral and religious development of students continued
to be given lip service in the mission statements of colleges and universities
well into the twentieth century, in practice, higher education became
increasingly secularized and disaffiliated with religion, particularly with the
rise of public higher education. By the 1960s, most colleges and universities in
the United States, including many historically faith oriented institutions, had
adopted a secular orientation that relegated matters of faith and religion to
the private realm of studentsí lives and increasingly to the periphery of
academic life. Horowitz notes that "the old collegiate culture never died,
but it shrank precipitously and as it did, it lost its hold."4

Over the past twenty years, concern has grown that American higher education
is failing its legacy and responsibility for encouraging moral and civic
capacities so critical in a democratic society. The publicís growing awareness
of the decline in interest and involvement among college students in voting and
civic life has generated some of this concern. The

increasing
materialism reflected in concern about status, making money, and self interested
values documented by decades of research on college freshmen trends by Alexander
Astin and colleagues at the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA has many
worried about the growing privatism and self-interested values of college
students.5

More recently, however, another important trend in student
values and interests has been underway that may suggest some important changes
in the values and priorities of todayís college students. This new trend can
be described as a "spirituality" movement, and it reflects college
studentsí surprising rediscovery of interest in religious and spiritual
values, practices, and lifestyles. This movement has been influenced by what Kuh
et al. describes as "the prominent influence of religion in various aspects
of American life" at the turn of the 21st century.

6
While it is difficult to trace the roots of this movement, the events of
September 11, 2001, are widely thought to have played a role by promoting
heightened concern about family, future, purpose, and meaning among much of the
U.S. population and especially among young people. Colleges and universities now
find themselves in the unexpected situation of having to respond to studentsí
expectations that institutions should take a more active role in making religion
and spirituality a more integral aspect of the college experience.

College officials are now reporting greater student interest
and participation in campus organizations and activities that have a spiritual
focus. In a recent national survey, student affairs leaders were asked to report
on trends in student interest in spiritual activities on their campuses.7
More than 75% of these student affairs leaders reported that they had observed
an increase in student interest and involvement in spirituality activities over
the past five years. Analysis of the responses revealed that increases in
student spiritual interest and involvement were reported in all types of
colleges and universities.

Stamm argued that spirituality has returned to campus and
that it is sparking a vigorous dialogue about values, meaning, purpose, and
religion and spirituality.

8
The recent research findings on college student spirituality reported by the
Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA in The Spiritual Life of
College Students also documented very high levels of student interest in
spirituality and studentsí active engagement in a variety of spiritual quest
activities.9

In an effort to learn more about what colleges and universities are doing
today to encourage moral and ethical development in their students, the authors
conducted a recent national survey of senior student affairs leaders. We were
especially interested in the specific moral and ethical values promoted by
colleges and universities and the administrative priorities they employed to
intentionally promote character development outcomes. We chose to focus the
survey on faith-based and non-sectarian private colleges and universities
because the historical missions of these types of colleges and universities have
usually included a focus on moral and ethical development as important outcomes
of the undergraduate experience.